Chapter One Hundred and Four
It wasn't over yet. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach, and I hated the queasy feeling, the uncertainty, the lack of closure. Or maybe I just couldn't let go. All those unsolved murders. Who was the real killer? Who was behind the strange murders?
A week after the shootings in Georgia, I sat in Ronald Burns's office on the fifth floor of FBI headquarters in Washington. Burns's assistant, a crew-cut male in his mid-twenties, had just brought us coffee in beautiful china cups. There were also fresh mini-pastries on a silver tray.
“Pulling out all the stops?” I asked the director. “Hot coffee and Danish.”
“You got it,” he said, 'shameless manipulation. Go with it.'
I'd known him for years, but it was only during the past few months that I'd worked closely with Burns. What I'd seen so far, I liked, but I'd been fooled before.
“How's Kyle Craig doing?” I asked him.
“We're trying to make it as uncomfortable as possible for him out in Colorado,” Burns said. He allowed himself a smile. “We have to keep him in solitary most of the day. For his own protection, of course. He hates being by himself. Drives him crazier. No one to show off to.”
“No psychiatrists in there trying to figure him out?”
Burns shook his head. “No, no. Not a good idea. That would be too dangerous for them.”
“Besides, Kyle would like the attention. He craves it. He's a junkie for it.”
“Exactly.”
We smiled at the image of Kyle locked away in seclusion, hopefully for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, I knew he had made contact with others in the max security unit -particularly Tran Van Luu.
“You don't think Kyle had anything to do with these killings?” Burns finally asked.
“I checked that out as much as I could. There's no evidence he knew Luu before he was assigned to Florence.”
“I know he visited out there, Alex, when he was still with the Bureau. He was definitely on the max security unit as well as death row. He could have met Luu. It's possible. I'm afraid you never know with Kyle.”
I almost didn't want to think about the possibility that Kyle might be behind the diabolical murder scheme somehow. But it was possible. Still, it seemed so unlikely that I didn't give it much credence.
“You had any time to think about my offer? ”Burns asked.
“I still don't have an answer for you. I'm sorry. This is a big decision for me and my family. If it's any consolation, once I land I don't jump around.”
“Okay, that's fine with me. You understand I can't leave the offer on the table indefinitely?”
I nodded. “I appreciate the way you're handling this. You always this patient?”
“Whenever I can be,” Burns said, and left it at that. He picked up a couple of manila folders from the coffee table between our chairs and slid them my way.
“I have something for you, Alex. Take a look.”
Alex Cross 8 - Four Blind Mice
Chapter One Hundred and Five
More of the Bureau's resources that you want me to I see,'
I said, and smiled at Burns.
“You'll like this. It's real good stuff. I hope it's helpful. I want to see you get some closure on this Army case. We're interested in this one, too.”
I reached into one of the folders and pulled out what looked like a faded patch off of a jacket. I held it up to examine the cloth more closely. The patch was green khaki with what looked like a crossbow sewn into the fabric. There was also a straw doll on the patch. An eerie, awful straw doll. The same kind I'd first seen in Ellis Cooper's house.
“The patch came from the jacket of a sixteen-year-old gang member in New York City. The gang he belonged to is named Ghost Shadows. They use different coffee shops on Canal Street in New York as headquarters. It's called roving turf,” Burns said.
“A task force we ran with the NYPD brought the gang banger in. He decided to trade some information he thought might be valuable to them. It wasn't. But it could be valuable to you.”
“How so?”I asked.
“He says he's sent you several e-mails during the past month, Alex. He used computers at a technical high school in New York.”
“He's Foot Soldier?” I asked, and shook my head in amazement.
'No. But he may be a messenger for Foot Soldier. He's Vietnamese. The symbol of the crossbow is from a popular folktale. In the story, the crossbow could kill ten thousand men every time it was fired. The Ghost Shadows think of themselves as very powerful. They're big into symbols, myth, magic.
